Outgoing labour chief Lim Swee Say has penned his final May Day Message -- his last one as secretary-general before stepping down on Sunday to become the new Manpower Minister.

Lim wrote that Singapore has been successful over the last 50 years because National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has "never stopped preparing for the future".

Hence, there was a need to sharpen the focus on two fronts: SkillsFuture, through which workers will pick up skills to enhance their future employability, and JobsFuture, to help more businesses transform existing jobs and create new ones to boost the country's future competitiveness.

He said: "We must move faster on both fronts, failing which we may see a rise in unemployment due to skill shortages, and under-employment due to a mismatch between future jobs and future skills."

"We could then regress and become just a normal country with an ordinary economy and ordinary workforce. This will be painful. We don't want this kind of future for ourselves, and definitely not for our children."

He said unemployment, structural unemployment and underemployment may rise if Singapore fails to improve on the skill and job fronts in tandem, which may lead to shortages of both, and a mismatch between those available.

Lim, who turns 62 in July this year, is retiring as part of a self-imposed leadership renewal plan. He has been at the helm since 2007.

The one thing he kept focused on in his eight years on the job was growing the relationship between employers, the government and labour movement. Singapore's success is based on the strong ties between these three parties.

This has resulted in the first conference on international tripartism to be held in October this year. Guy Ryder, the director-general of the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation, will attend the international tripartism forum and deliver the keynote address.

The aim is to share Singapore's experience of being pro-business and pro-worker with other countries.

The tripartite partners in Singapore are the NTUC, the Manpower Ministry and the Singapore National Employers Federation, which represent the unions, government and employers respectively.

Lim also paid tribute to the pioneer generation, and all workers and tripartite partners, for contributions to Singapore's transformation over the last 50 years.

They have helped secure the economic conditions that workers here enjoy, he said. These are a tight labour market with enough jobs for workers of various ages, fair wage increases and bonuses, a higher re-employment age ceiling and industrial peace.

Top photo from Lim Swee Say Facebook. 

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